This blog is still alive, just in semi-hibernation. When I want to write something longer than a tweet about something other than math or sci-fi, here is where I'll write it.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Flags of many lands™: A visual update

Yay, Nepal! Every new flag makes me happy!

Today, I decided to show the continents that have countries (Sorry, Antarctica!) and Oceania to show the current coverage of the world by the Lotsa 'Splainin' 2 Do Network.

The North American map is Mercator projection, which distorts the size of the things to the far north. Greenland is nowhere as big as Africa, though a Mercator map makes it look so. The coverage of North America looks good because I have folks from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, but in Central America, I only have Panama. In the Caribbean, I have many, though by no means all, of the small island nations, but I am notably missing Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti.

This explains the shortages of cigar, ganja and voodoo often experienced at Lotsa 'Splainin'.

Visitors have been logged from seven of the thirteen South American countries. No one has visited from the countries that would have been called The Guianas when I was a kid (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are the current names) and I'm also missing Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.

European coverage is pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. Of the big countries, I am missing Ukraine, Moldova, Yugoslavia and Albania. I'm also missing several of the postage stamp countries like San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein and others. Getting the tiny countries is pure luck, and I'm lucky to have a visitor from Monaco, for instance.

African coverage, on the other hand, has plenty of room for improvement. Egypt, Senegal, Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa. That's it so far. Let's go, Africa! I'm sure gigantic child brides have a universal appeal. Also, I'm currently the #10 website for people searching the Google for lolz cats. Go figure!

Lots of visitors from Asia, but it's the biggest continent, so there's plenty of white countries, places that haven't sent a visitor yet. I don't expect much traffic from North Korea or Myanmar any time in the near future, but I didn't expect anybody from Nepal or Sri Lanka, either. Folks are always dropping by unannounced here at Lotsa 'Splainin', so we always have some extra 'splainin' stored away in the cellar.

Coverage of Oceania is very good. Almost every day sees a visitor from Australia, and the Kiwis show up on a regular basis as well.

Update:While this post was being written, a new visitor chanced upon Lotsa 'Splainin' 2 Do from Brunei. How did he or she get here? To thrill to the story of how I narrowly avoided a relationship with Amy Winehouse due to the fact that I never met her. Close call for Matty Boy! (Not really that close.)

And now you can go visit Foxy Tunes and listen to Wreckless Eric pine for world travel in one of his excellent tunes. There's also the You Tube cut from the movie Stranger Than Fiction, where Will Farrell's taxman character plays the only song he knows for Ms. Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and wins her over.